Social media has long been debated regarding its influence on individuals. Recently, there was a congressional hearing with TikTok CEO as well, which highlights the nationwide interest in this topic. However, regardless of any political aspects, what kind of impact does social media have? 

The Google effect is one of the studied phenomena that demonstrates the influence of social media on human cognition. The Google effect explains that people tend to memorize whether to find the information rather than memorizing the information itself, as people can google information easily with social media. 

This theory has been studied by a psychologist called Sparrow, and the results showed that people who were informed that they have to memorize the information and that the information won’t be available later on had a higher percentage of correct responses compared to participants who were similarly informed to memorize the information but that the information would be available later. 

Moreover, an inspirational speaker Simon Sinek mentioned in his interview with Tom Bilyu in Inside Quest that the environment created by the introduction of social media has made people impatient, as they do not have to wait to gain information through social media. 

Although social media may have positive influences such as connecting people around the world, it also has negatives that need to be well considered to not lead to detrimental impact by misusing the technology. 

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